Anyone with any influence at ASUS please help me!

I am so deeply dissapointed and saddened by the service response I got today from Asus Warranty that I had to share my feelings and frustrations with this board in the hopes that someone out there will offer some guidance as to where or what I should attempt next to have my G73JH repaired by warranty and returned in good condition and working order. I have been following "all" the posts that have been submitted on this product, especially those concerning the touch pad issues because as you might have guessed, the only substantial problem so far has been just that, the daily misery of attempting to use this computer for business and some occasional gaming while having to deal with the frustration of the "mind of it's own" Synaptics touch pad. It's been about a week since I returned the RMA'd G7 and since then I hadn't heard or received any notification, so I decided to call the service dept. this evening. Along with the carefully packaged notebook, I included a checklist indicating a few other concerns, #1. missing rubber feet, #2. loud fans indicating possible overheating, #3. loosened print scr key and an unnoticeable crack beneath the space bar on the keyboard key "plastic surround". Basically what I was told by the service agent and then again by his Supervisor was that the computer was being held pending my response to an email (which was never sent or recieved by the way) stating that because of the other damages to the computer, namely (the broken plastic surround under the keyboard) that the warranty is "VOID" and they will not repair the track pad or anything else. It really came as a surprise especially because I was actually learning to live with the trackpad problem but only sent it in because of the new problems, the popped off and missing prt scr key and the broken plastic, so now what do I do and how can I administrate this claim with ASUS and get the warranty service I deserve without having to file further complaints or a possible lawsuit? Really sorry for the lengthy post but I just want to get my laptop back in one piece and hopefully with a new touch pad. Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

 

You could try contacting Chastity here on the forum.

In all fairness, though, your description of a crack in the top surface suggests physical damage. It's not that easy to crack the top cover, so I'm guessing the Asus techs are assuming your computer took a serious blow near the touchpad, possibly causing its defective behavior.

I realize that may not be the case, but you'll probably have to try and do some convincing that the touchpad and the broken top cover are unrelated. Good luck, and as I suggested earlier, see if Chastity can look into it for you.

 

Thank you BrodyBoy for your advice. In my explanation letter to ASUS service I included the following;
Please repair or replace the following items;

1. The track pad does not operate properly. On an intermittent basis, the cursor / arrow will move out of control and cannot be controlled. The track pad driver features do not work properly either and/or have been turned off as well to help tolerate the problem. The currently installed track pad driver is from the Synaptic website (I’ve tried both from ASUS ) and has so far proven to work the best. Please renovate or replace this track pad with the new updated three button track pad if possible.
2. The Prt SC SysRq key on the keyboard became loose and has fallen off. In an attempt to reattach it myself, I inadvertently cracked the keyboard surround beneath the space bar key. Please repair and let me know what the plastic surround will cost if necessary I must pay.
3. Replace and sufficiently affix all missing “rubber feet” on underside of computer case.
4. The fans run excessively fast and loud most of the time. Please check to make sure unit isn’t overheating.
5. Please inspect computer case upon receipt and return unit in scratch free condition. I will not accept any damage to the finish on the outer case/casing or the monitor screen.

It's really pretty simple to understand considering the fact that I admitted to cracking the key surround (just so there is no misunderstanding, it's the flimsy plastic piece surrounding the keys themselves, not the top cover) myself attempting to repair the loose key. I took the responsibility to identify the problem, clarified my intentions in attempting to reaffix the loose print key and the willingness to even pay for the parts if necessary. It simply is just a matter of whether or not they can get away with not owning up to the responsibility of their warranty promise. I think if they cared enough about their customers this would be a non issue. Imagine it this way if you will, I scratch the paint on the hood of my pick up truck while replacing the windshield wiper blades, and as a result the manufacturer voids my 36,000 mile engine warranty because I attempted to polish out the scratch myself. I just don't think it's fair and the service reviews that I've been reading all over the web including this site seem to prove it. When are we going to stop accepting this kind of service from companies like ASUS and demand only what is simply right and fair and very well paid for? $1699. plus tax to be exact at Fry's Electronics, another customer service organization that has failed brilliantly in my opinion. They specialize in taking the money and running in my opinion. For that matter ASUS could have at least made an attempt to rationalize the situation by talking to me first and offering some kind of solution other than voiding my warranty. The tragic part about all of this is that I have been an ASUS consumer for well over 15 years now and I've literally spent thousands buying their computers and parts over the years but I'm getting really tired of this kind of BS and won't walk away with my tale between my legs I assure you. Thanks anyways, and by the way if Chasity is affiliated with ASUS in any official kind of way, I would appreciate her unsolicited response as well.

 

asus warranty is down the crapper.
i experienced the same thing as you but on a different model laptop.
they tried not to cover the warranty telling me it was user induced,
really? , who in there right mind would intentionally damage their $1000 laptop?

and if it wasnt done intentionally, it would be accidental right?
this is where the ADW kicks in, but they'll try to not cover it.

 

PM Chastity.

 

Asus + Business doesn't go well together.

 

Thanks to all

 

wow, i'm floored by this story.

the phrase "penny-wise and pound-foolish" comes to mind in thinking of how to describe ASUS on their support policies.

i myself have a g73jh-a1 and have been plagued for the past two years with the lame touchpad issue, so i feel the pain.

seriously, how much money is ASUS saving with these kind of tactics vs. how many potential customers they will lose with squirrelly support policy.

i think the issue is that the support org probably gets judged at how good they are at weaseling out of coverage vs how pleased their customers are.

 

Thanks for the reply Tony K, and you're exzactly right! It would be one thing if this company were peddling laptops at $299.00 with a " u break it, u keep it" gaurranty. But that's hardly the case. It's not the money, this company specializes in high ticket peripheral components, and it's usually decent stuff in general. So why INSULT your flagship customers to save nickels. SHAME ON THE ASUS CORPORATION... I for one have always been loyal to this manufacturer and now for about $5.00 worth of plastic they're telling me and my family to go take a hike. I did a tally of what I have in use/service from ASUS in my office and home of a wife and four children and 13 employees and it looks something like this; 7- notebooks, 11-video cards, 6-motherboards and at least the same amount of out-of-service ASUS components on the recycling pile up in the attic. In my opinion, the management at ASUS deserve nothing less than a "track pad" class action lawsuit. I'm serious, when I read how much has been written about service denial with this company it makes my skin crawl, and we keep going back for more because of the flashy boxes and the hidden lies in their advertising, marketing and warranty promises.

I received the "OUT OF WARRANTY" quote in my email tonight and it reads as follows;

Below is your Out of Warranty Quote.


If you would like to continue with repairs for your ASUS product, please return the completed and signed credit card form by one of the following methods:

Fax: 510-797-XXXX (Attn: Savanah)

Email: (PDF/JPG formats accepted only)



Payment will need to be received no later than ( 01/20/12 ) to prevent your RMA from being returned unrepaired on ( 01/23/12 ). Repair process is approximately 3-5 business days from once payment is approved (excludes: parts on backorder and/or shipping/transit time).



Cost of repairs (all amounts are USD) – enter amounts on credit card form:

Parts - $40.00 (Keyboard- (Missing key caps/ physical damage)- $20.00, Video Graphics Heat Sink- $10.00, & Touch Pad- $10.00)

Labor - $65.00

Shipping – please select one shipping method only on credit card form

Sales Tax** – please select one option only on credit card form



**Only if you reside in California or Canada will sales tax be charged. If you are outside California or Canada, please select “none”.



IMPORTANT: It is required that all amounts and totals be filled in by you directly, based on the quote we have provided. All credit card forms must be received with a physical signature for credit card payment processing. If sending via email, you will need to complete the form, sign, and scan as a PDF/JPG format. If any of this required information is missing/incorrect, Asus will request that you update and resubmit the form. It is important to provide a completed accurate form to avoid any delay in the repair process.

Sorry to rant and rave but this is a less than one year old notebook that is still in virtually "right out of the box" condition. I take very good care of my electronics, always in it's bag, and as "rysher" mentioned in an earliar post "who in their right mind would abuse a $1700.00 laptop and then send it in while denying any wrong doing. Give me a break! I think it's time for all of us who have suffered with this nonsense to "OCCUPY ASUS", and put a stop once and for all to this type of abuse and customer treatment and dissatisfaction. We should stop just talking about it. It's this type of behavior one might expect from a used car dealer in a crappy part of town. It's probably illegal, it's definately unjustified and it deserves a customer satisfaction score, on a scale of 1 to 10 of about a -5. They should all be ashamed of themselves and the people in charge of service repairs at ASUS should all be fired for allowing it to happen, and I don't care how much it costs them or how much they're saving. STOP RATIONALIZING DAMMIT! It's still a cheat!! I rest my case, at least for tonight.

 

Here is a close-up photo of my so called abused laptop. Please notice the subject keyboard and why ASUS has decided to VOID WARRANTY SERVICE because of all the abuse and physical damage. WHAT PHYSICAL DAMAGE??? ONE LOOSE KEYBOARD KEY, THAT'S RIGHT (1) LOOSE, NOT EVEN MISSING PRT SCR KEY. The key surround is cracked as well beneath the space bar, can you see it? BELIEVE IT OR NOT! Is this ridiculous or am I just having a nightmare?

 

BUYERS BEWARE!! the saga continues... my G73JH is back and yes, thanks to "C" it's running like new, brandy snifter in one hand a fine cigar in the other, I can still smell her perfume, Ahh! but wait a minute that's not my notebook battery, this one isn't mine, this one is all beaten up and all the pretty stickers are torn off, and WAIT!, that's not the adapter I sent in, hey where's my a/c adapter. This one isn't my adapter, mine looked like it was still new, it didn't look like this, mine was pretty and it worked, this one is all scratched up, gouged, broken, and the little green lite doesn't even come on either. These parts they sent back are junk, oops, I mean't to say trash, did somebody literally dig these parts out of the dumpster??? Settle down boy, this isn't really happening I think to myself, come on give me back my stuff!! I then hear a little voice in my head say "Steve Jobs I really miss you", "good night Martha". Martha is the make believe QC inspector at ASUS service and she smells like moth balls, pee-uuu! I'm sorry Martha it's you I adore darling, but where is my new replacement battery sweetheart? What, no battery replacements for old guys, I should have known?? I'm crushed peaches! to be continued.....

 

Wait, what? Did you ever get in contact with Chastity? That sounds rather odd. Generally the adapter you get back from your RMA will have a sticker on it, but that's about it. And what stickers on the battery? Is the notebook okay?

And which center is servicing your notebook?

EDIT: How did you get around your warranty issue? Did you end up needing to pay? If anything, Asus is good at honoring their warranties.

 

Follow along please, "C" is who? Come on only 10 seconds remaining, hurry, RIGHT! you got it, "C" stands for Chastity.... now if you read my little nightmare story it eludes to the idea that an Asus policy informant, likely the individual who checked in my notebook, apparently at some place called BIZsomething or other.com, well he or she makes an attempt to "VOID" my warranty because of the loose keyboard piece and the ASUS policy nonsense which is what started the snowball rolling. Now, I would presume that that very person is the individual who misplaces or denies receiving my notebook with it's original battery and a/c adapter. I'll want to take some responsibility here and admit that in my subsequent confusion, (stemming mostly from fear that someone else hundreds of miles away will be manipulating my machine,) I fail to read the entire RMA email and I make a mistake of sending in my components along with the G7. Now, Chastity reads my posts and gets involved and takes over, there is a notebook with no battery or adapter, most likely a common occurrence at HQ. Chastity does all repairs including a brilliant tune-up and for some reason questions whether or not I sent in my power components. I thank goodness for Chastity's ingenuity at this point because otherwise the notebook would have come back without. Now to make a long story short, Chastity and I discuss the situation and C orders replacements but somebody up there at HQ bubble wraps a well beaten and damaged a/c adapter and an old scratched up battery and tries to pass them off as either the parts I sent in or new ones. fast forward, they send the notebook back with this junk attached and I go crazy because I'm a diagnosed serious sufferer of OCD and I threaten "C" with a Navy Seal Team invasion if I don't get "scratch free" and fresh replacements post haste. So yesterday and thankfully due to Chastity's patience and perserverence, I receive a brand new a/c adapter but of course ASUS fails to include an equivalent (as to new condition) battery and I'm apparently stuck now with a replacement battery someone up there used as a hockey puck in the lunch room before it was thrown in the trash can, which is where it was most likely retrieved from and then disguised as a fresh new one. So as the story goes, I have been having nightmares and all I see in my dreams is Martha the the QC Inspector giggling as she wraps the ugly plastic parts in bubble wrap so no one will notice, (this is a real money saver if you're in charge of quality control at a big corporation like ASUS) and then sends them to me because I must really deserve this kind of service because I was actually quite stupid and paid retail and everyone knows that if you're stupid enough to pay retail, you deserve to be treated this way! Well I do hope that this has cleared things up a little and thanks for listening but I'm sleepy now and I'm starting to fall off so I'll be getting back to my little nightmare, Hello Martha are you in a good mood this morning, or are you planning to pick on more of our loyal customers today, what fools! ,hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!.... to be continued

 

I too suffer from OCD when it comes to electronics, and at the premium these notebooks are supposed to be, I think we deserve nothing less. Luckily, Chastity accommodated for my little quirks and sorted everything out for me nicely. I can certainly understand how frustrating it must be to have a beaten up battery, but you may just have to live with it.

Despite this, that was very entertaining. Thanks for explaining.

 

It goes something like this, when it comes to bad service and poor customer satisfaction; if you've had a good experience with a service company you're likely to share that information with about three other people. However, if it is a bad experience, statistics prove you'll likely share your experience with about seventeen other people. Now in today's customer satisfaction driven market, competitive as it is with the internet review processes and such, you would think a company like Asus would do whatever they could to keep the natives from becoming restless. So no I'm not planning to live with anything that makes me feel like a overgrown chump-panzee, no sir. I'm going to keep telling this story as often and as many times as I can to prove my point or until someone at the factory delivers me a BRAND NEW BATTERY or acceptable facsimile, just like the one I sent in, plain and simple. The TRUTH is they don't give a damn, so why should we? I hear you though, and I see the apathy everyday in this country and that's exactly what I think is wrong with this situation to begin with. Asus may build hot computers and market themselves mainly to a bunch of youngsters who haven't had to work for anything in their lives anyways, so many will put up with this kinda crap, but I go to work everyday so I demand my monies worth and I want what I pay for, and I want it as promised with a little appreciation and respect as well. Don't forget to read my next chapter, MARTHA IN CUSTOMER SERVICE HAS AN EPIPHANY AND FINALLY REALIZES, QUALITY PRODUCTS ALONG WITH GOOD SERVICE IS JOB #1. p.s. if anyone out there would like to pitch in and share their own "less than stellar" experience feel free. I'll try to behave and just be a good listener, I promise.

 

Your rants are so poetic. Good show.

 

So my G73 bst-7 is 16 month old now. The touch pad has been an issue since day 1, but now it has gotten to the point of unusable. Thinking to send it for repair... Should I? ?

 

Thanks sarge and hello there UA2012, nice to make your acquaintance. My G73JH-A1 notebook equipped with the Synaptics one button touchpad has been operating trouble free for the very first time since I purchased it in August 2010, and apparently the correct fix appears to have to do with the removal of an adhesive residue which I'm told is an electrostatic material that stems from the tape product originally used by the manufacturer in assembly to isolate and apparently secure the touchpad. Once removed and replaced with updated tape and the correct adhesive the problems disappear. I was one of the fortunate few to have Chastity at the Fremont, Ca. HQ take control of the RMA file on my machine and I'm delighted with the results. C has also updated the drivers to Synaptics version 15.3.13.0. and the touchpad is now tight and responsive just like it was designed to be. With regard to your hesitation on whether or not to send it in, well that's a question only you can answer. However, at 16 months as you might already know, there are only eight months left of warranty and I would presume that once the word gets out that this fix is the "cats meow" and the guessing game is over, I'm sure many G7'ers out there will likely rush to get them done. I hope that ASUS demonstrates the integrity and business acumen to recall this machine officially for this very reason and extend coverage to "anyone that has been affected that purchased with high expectations and has suffered as you have". It's been a very frustrating dilema to say the least! I actually equate a laptop track pad problem to a new microwave oven that will clean itself and cook anything to perfection except popcorn. Who needs it then! But hey, now at least I know why I got that very sweet and very,very handy gaming mouse with my machine, what a coincidence huh!! Last but not least, take extra care to photograph and document the condition of your laptop before you FedEx, and don't send anything in like I did unless they request it in the RMA, (ie; a/c adapter, battery, mouse, bag, files, cd's, [however I did send in a clean and undamaged dvd so the techs would have something to test with instead of the usual dirty old shop disc) and follow the RMA instructions implicitly. Like I said, I was one of the lucky few to have Chastity repair and tune-up my machine and I am thankful beyond words, oh and speaking of words, Chastity by the way was the only person I spoke with at Asus warranty that spoke natural english, so that was a blessing as well. Remember to protect it, package it, seal it, explain it, prepare it, and do a little asking around prior to shipping it in and try to raise Chastity's attention once you get your RMA# and explain to C exactly how you're feeling about the situation and how it makes you feel, which is obviously nervous. So just be cautious and follow up regularly by telephone and take responsibility for guiding it through the repair process and you'll be fine. Good luck! p.s. I have to laugh sometimes, can you imagine having to wish your neighbor good luck when they take their Mercedes Benz or Macbook in for warranty service repairs, maybe is was a neccessity back in the day, but these days companies like these take really good care of their client base and it certainly shows doesn't it? I just don't think our friends at Asus HQ's understand this yet. I wonder why?

 

To your very-very last question in the previous post: I think they have simply calculated that increase in revenue from improved customer service is less than neccessary expendure to improve it. c'est la vie

 

You may be right my friend but I think it is more of a cultural problem than financial decision on the part of AsusTek. Any well managed Taiwanese company wouldn't have taken nearly two years to respond to or offically address this type of serious product defect and warranty concern. I hold on my belief that this company just doesn't care and it more than likely originates from greedy senior management. The local support network saying one thing while the folks overseas are yet to be heard from reminds me of the Rusty Kettle Used Car lot "Good Guy, Bad Guy" routine. The Damon Runyon approach to business if you will! You know, Look like fish, taste like chicken, or is it the other way around?? I don't know...Au revoir!

 

Same here... Just wait when your keyboardlight is gone, puff!

Got my G73JH back from 2nd RMA, and the light was gone, morons..



PS: 4 months left of warranty, thank God, end of Asus RMA Shop screwups...